


And we keep driving into the night...

by Mount_75



Category: Marble Hornets, Slender Man Mythos
Genre: Animal Death, Child Death, Gen, Mild Gore, No Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28663602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mount_75/pseuds/Mount_75
Summary: The time of this story is set hours before Entry #56.Tim had a phone call with Brian early in the morning, they discussed about an uncanny dream Brian had regarding Alex's recent behavior during the filming of Marble Hornets. Meanwhile, Alex was descending further down into the whirlpool of madness.
Kudos: 1





	And we keep driving into the night...

**Author's Note:**

> Chinese Version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26102014  
> This work is translated from Chinese, I am not a native English speaker so some part of it may sound really weird. Sorry in advance! 
> 
> The flashback part is mostly my canon according to Tim Sutton's tumblr posts and all the small details appeared in Marble Hornets.  
> BGM: Late Goodbye - Poets of the Fall
> 
> enjoy?

Tim glanced at the electronic clock as he picked up the call. 3:18, in the morning. Great, the night just couldn't get any better. He turned on the speaker, and fumbled for the bed lamp.

“What's happening, Brian? ”

On the other side of the phone, a door made a faint crack sound. After some seconds, Brian's voice came through: “Uh, trouble sleeping again? ” 

“Nah, it's nothing, I woke up early,” Tim lied, he turned off speaker to use microphone instead, “So what is it? ”

“Remember I told you before, that someone was leaving dead animals in Alex's front yard, did you remember? ” Huh, Tim replied, it's probably a big cat or some other wild animals that did it, “I just can't stop thinking...what he said made me quite creeped out - Alex, all by himself, in that deep wooded area - should have told him to stay in my house or yours for some days.”

Tim nodded. He could not tell Brian that he and Alex went sour: Didn't know why. Perhaps it's his fault. In the end it is always his fault. Tim never made any effort to maintain a friendship that's on the verge of breaking. He never really thought he ever had any real relationships anyway. It is likely a trait from his mother: She doesn't know how to solve a problem. She just keeps on pretending it doesn't exist - a remind of the way very little kids playing hide-and-seek, covering their own eyes, thinking other people won't see them if they can't see others.

The first day of moving into college, Tim's mother came to see him. She came in the afternoon. his luggage sat on the floor, yet to unpack. Took me almost 3 hours from Atlanta to Tuscaloosa, his mother complained, And I had to drive back on my own. Tim looked at her, wanting to ask why she didn't come to his high school graduation ceremony. 

Not that Tim tried to remember all these moments, after he admitted into the hospital, he spent little time with his mother. She was never there when he needed her the most. Tim has got used to it. Perhaps, as they sat by the restaurant window outside school, he just felt a thin layer of awkwardness.

Don't forget to take your medication, and don't get into trouble with other people; Tim nodded as he drink through a straw. Are you still in touch with Dr. Cage? “No actually, they sent me another doctor when I transferred,” Oh, “I'll find a job soon as summer starts, I could pay for my student loan on my own. Don't worry.” Okay. 

The awkward silence didn't last for too long, because she suddenly had a phone call. She picked it, and started to get up from her seat, “Wright, Janet Wright, yes, I'll be there right then.” Tim handed her scarf over, “I'll be signing some documents of yours for the school, and I also got a nightshift today. So...better leave now.” They said good luck to each other, and Tim watched her leaving from behind the window. 

Most people feel the same way on their first day of college: frightened, excited, dizzy in the head. Just when Tim started to walk back slowly, someone waved at him from a distance, and then started walking right across the lawn. Tim looked up again and that person was standing right in front of him, a name tag for Newcomer's Guide was hanging around his neck. His hair white and glowing under the sun.

“Hello, you must also be a freshman here! ”Seeing Tim looking at his name tag, he immediately took it off, “Don't mind that, I borrowed it from those people - I'm Brian, ...How are you? ”

Ten minutes later, Tim knew that they had the same music-appreciation course, and Brian wanted to be a nurse someday, and he knew a guy named Seth who is majoring in photography - same as Tim's future plan. And also he invited Tim over for dinner.

“Guess I don't have much choice here.” Tim replied.

Tim was pacing back and forth in his room. Brian just told him the weird dream he had before making this phone call: The person in this dream was running from a place that's almost pitch dark. Light would occasionally illuminate the pavement in front of his feet. It seemed like pouring rain outside, though he couldn't see the water. He could hear the rushing sound of rain twirling and flooding into this place from everywhere...he picked up speed, and suddenly found that the road beneath him was covered in dried-up blood, a dense layer of blood. The colour of it already went black. The rain diluted some of it, and the stale, rusty smell became stronger in the air. Suddenly a great mass of water with metallic taste surged up through his nose from deep in the lung, a soaring pain produced from the back of his head, he coughed violently from inhaling water and breathing difficulties...And he knew he could run no more. Just before waking up Brian was still trying to cough up the water in his mouth, “Alex...Alex...” A soft, snake-like hissing in his ears, “did you SEE it? ”

Tim paced a little more, then turned around. “I feel that things might've gone bad, 'cause I also think Alex...Forget it, you couldn't do nothing at 3 o'clock, I suggest you sack in before thinking about anything with Alex,” He fell silent for a moment, then added, “I could come by in a minute, if you want.”

“Well, may-be not necessary,” Brian sounded like he was getting back to himself, they went on with some other stuffs, including Alex's film, “I think it's best to call Alex up to my house in the day, you come too? ”

Tim never forgets his medication, just like when he was in high school. His back leaning against the toilet stall, the pills sliding down his dry throat. Headaches and coughings are pretty rare by then, but the problem is about his new friend. 

He swallowed down his medication, then went on to see his friend, but what Brian was seeing was a counterfeit of the Tim who hides in the toilet to take his pills. The Tim who hides in the washroom to take pills deserved no such genuine and unexpected friendship. his whole life went from single hospital ward to single toilet stall, only the closing walls and pills could protect him from getting chased up by monster in his hallucinations. Each time Brian tried to ask but stopped as the question came to his mouth, Tim became all the more panicked. Even the muscles on his face could betray that he was not a normal kid. 

“I have to tell you something,” Tim stared at Brian, with a face solemn and in total dismay, “You always wish to know what I was taking for medications...This, this is for schizophrenia treatment,” He took out the vial from a pocket, and placed it between the two, “I took it three times a day, so that I won't hear things talking in my head, or start banging my head on the wall for something I imagine seeing. I started taking them since as long as I could remember, I was also...admitted into a mental hospital, until high school,” Now that Tim cannot look directly into his eyes, “I should have told you before we were friends, I didn't ...” _I didn't mean to lie, I don't want you to be frightened of me. You are the first real friend I remember having._ Tim couldn't finish what he was about to speak. 

“OK.” Brian said.

“...OK? ”

“Yeah...ouch, I thought you were coming out to me,” Brian answered, with his wide, deer eyes, “Why you keeping this from me, though, if you told me earlier, I would have read more about mental health nursing.”

“You don't understand what I was talking, don't you,” Aren't they the same? “No, they are absolutely NOT THE SAME! ”Tim shouted, agitated, “you see, I was lying to you into making friends with me, but people like me...just can't have things like these! I never played in a football match like a real human did, or joining a club or having a role in some Christmas play from school. The movies and games Expo and band tours you all talking about are not English to me. Just a fact, I almost never left that mental hospital until high school! The only fun I got was the Rosswood park not far away from it, but especially there - they won't let me. You told me that your family went on vacations in Europe every year, but I had never been...anywhere, with my mom. You were in boy scouts, a member in the ‘Free Climbers’, and you have camped every mountain areas around here, all the while I slept overnight in the woods only to run away from - fucking nonexistent things I was seeing.”

Brian contemplated on Tim's words, then just shrugged: “Well, but all the while, you were one of the people most talented in music I've met, your humour is a little odd, but once I get it, it's funny. Those high school plays sucked from the beginning, nobody ever gives it a damn except for my Ma... I find you very good, perfect, I like it being your friend. So don't mind about those things you said you were missing. As for those you mentioned, if I can do it, you can do it.”

“I came mainly for your snacks,” Tim joked, “So prepare your fridge filled with yogurts! ”But Brian started to sound worrisome again: 

“Alex was usually a smart guy, and smart people like him - with high self-esteem, and they wanted to do everything in their way. But it doesn't seem like him taking it to the extremes.” Of course, because it is You. Tim couldn't help but kept his comments. Alex can't get mad at you, but not to us. After all, those unpleasantries they've dealt with Alex should attribute to “Marble Hornets”, that student film Alex was directing. Brian, as the leading actor (no wonder) dragged him in. The first time he met Alex, Tim merely found him quite bossy, but they got along after several meetings. If you try bringing up movies with him, he could give you a whole lecture for 2-3 hours. However, only recently, Alex started to lose his temper, throwing drama at his actors from time to time. He for some reason was also obsessed with recording everyone's every single movement, even off the screen. It made all of them extremely uncomfortable. Tim had considered quitting. Not just the dead animals, Brian also heard that someone was following him.

“Anxiety and paranoia,” Describing someone like this in front of Brian gave him a sense of guilt, but if he was ever sensitive of anything, it must be the awful smell that mixes those two. Tim cannot sleep long before this call, he checked his window, then the door of his bedroom by habit, and provided as much opinion as he could, to the other people on the phone, “I believed something happened to him, Brian, he saw something or he thought he saw something, I don't know. What else did you hear him saying? Maybe Alex would rather tell you more...If there is anything I can do, just ask me.”

“Brian, are you still there? ”

First year of college, Tim didn't have time for a job.

No football match, Brian took him to a local gym and they spent an afternoon throwing axes - real axes. Brian incited him to think the target as that high school fellow he hated the most. They went to an arcade, and had ice-cream with salted crackers. They looked for the underground bands Brian was familiar to from bars to bars - Brian showed him the first bass guitar he bought when he was 15 - he still got the skull knob on it, “If something ever happens to me, you could have my bass.” In order to break Brian's record of movie marathon, Tim crashed on Brian's coach for 3 days, they finished Star Wars, Terminator, Lord of the Rings, and Twin Peaks.

They also went for a prop comedy. Tim didn't quite understand why they were selling raincoats at the entry, and Brian bought one as well - until the actor pulled out a large wooden mallet, and started smashing, one by one, the food objects in front of him. Hid under the raincoat and watched as pulp and many different pieces and chunks of food flew over him, Tim swallowed.

“I suspect you had your violent episodes? ”Tim buried his head in the sink, using tap water to rinse away the remain of some key lime cake in his hair. “Oh shut, Tim,” Brian was drying his hair now with the hand dryer, didn't give him a glance, “Come on, or we ain't gonna make it to the photos.”

The Cure's album was playing in the car, and the girls were sharing a waterpipe while laughing and joking. Tim wanted to smoke a cigarette as well, then decided not to. Brian insist on taking his coat that's been in Tim's wardrobe for weeks. A poor excuse for leaving him alone with strangers.

Brian found his coat, and took out another yellow jacket for Tim as well. Just before he go, he looked at the small closet in Tim's bathroom - Tim had his medication there. Tim was increasing his dosage again. Back to the car, Tim was joining with their jokes and they laughed as if they were going to use up all the oxygen. Tim was a super talkaholic once he's acquainted with you, Brian found that even before himself. They saw another car steadily pulled over to the side, one of the ladies stopped puffing, “Hey, my boyfriend's here...nice to meet you, Tim.” The latter suddenly blushed: “See ya later.”

The sky was already dark when they finally pitched their tents, the campsite deep in the heart of an old-growth forest oozed with cool air. Luckily those masters of campers have set up a fire, and they started grilling sausages and roasting marshmallows. Then, Brian beg everyone's pardon, and started telling the first horror story of the night.

It's your storytime now, Tim. “No...I actually didn't have one...”But actually, he did, everything should start with its root. A playground with slides and climbing net, next to the woods. He saw a man just off the border of the woods and beside the playground. The man was tall, and wearing to the bones, the kid on the net climbers seemed weird, repeatedly climbing up and down as if stucked in a loop. The man then looked back directly at Tim, and walked away into the woods. When Tim realized, he was following that person. At first, he was strolling down the trail, the iron plates beneath his dress shoes made a euphonic, keen clatter. After that, he made a turn to a disgarded footpath, and then, he left that lane as well. When Tim saw him again, he was standing right in front of a tunnel. A large heap of cement rocks was dumped in the way - Tim never knew how that guy just walked pass the rubble, anyway it took Tim a hundred years. And when he finally looked up, the man was no where to be seen.

Must be at the other end of the tunnel, Tim thought to himself. He has never been at this part of the woods before. Thus, he decided to have a little adventure with it. Passing through the tunnel, he listened to his own echo. Yet at some point of this adventure, the woods have changed completely.

It has become an older, more vivid form of itself, as if it was alive, and carnivorous. But it didn't change the boys mind. Tim only wanted to find...He suddenly didn't remember what he was looking for. A foul, stifling odour forced him to wake up from a sleep-walker's state. He heard a low buzzing sound, and as soon as he lifted his head he found where the sound came from. Instantly the young Tim covered his ears and shut his eyes tight, thinking that must've been a shot from some horror movies, but the putrid, flyblown thing was still there. Tim put his hands down, that child on the playground was right upon Tim's head, he was hung on the tree branch with his own intestines. If one sees it closely, the maggots was still moving inside the child's ruptured body, and on his face, making him seemed like struggling. Tim felt the air got thin - the slender figure was at his back. 

Run. Run! Run! Twigs snapped and rattled behind him, that ominous but at the same time oddly absorbing person started to go after him. A chunk of red mass scattered on the floor, the blood under it was already dried up. inches ahead was rows and columns of small ditches. The child ploughed this soil with his finger, trying to cling onto anything. Tim would end up like him if he was caught up. Coldness breathed upon the hair of his neck, something black flew at the corner of his eye, and Tim tripped hard on it. The sound around him suddenly fell silent. Tim turned around, and saw his face.

No, not his, its. Something that barely holds itself in the shape of a human. Tim's eyes and nose were burning hot, blood ran down his nose and into his mouth. As Tim choked, he couldn't look away from it. As though he was staring at a monstrous, unknown creature gliding away just below the water surface. And it sent him all sorts of deep ocean fear. In the end, it let him go, but only to fulfill its cruelest intention.

Thinking about it now, all of this is more like a nightmare too detailed to distinguish its authenticity. For a long, aching time, that nightmare came to Tim even when his eyes were wide open. The straps made his elbows sore, sedatives and painkillers at last cut off his dreams along with the coughing and headaches, and together with many other things. Days after he accepted this camping invitation, he imagined hearing quiet footsteps outside the apartment hallway, again.

“Nonetheless,” Tim said, “It all convinced me even more that till now all of these are just nightmares.”

“But just to assure yourself, you took the medication that was supposed to be for the next week. Isn't it? ”

“Ah-ha, figures. Whatever you say, Brian.”

One of the two girls with them called out, asking Brian to reach for another bottle of water to brush their teeth. Their voice became indistinct. Tim never slept in a tent overnight before, not knowing that a forest at summer midnight could be so cold that he was shivering now. Tim pulled the jacket under his chin, and sealed off all the warmth inside his sleeping bag like a hibernating bear. Is there any bears in this area? He asked, but no one was answering. But you are right, Brian, I could now really forget all of it once I spoke it out.

Alex was woken by the dog.

He stood still at the centre of his room, couldn't recall the last time sleeping really helped with his physical and emotional exhaustion. The camera pointing at his bedroom door has already stopped recording - Did he change the tape before sleep? Alex couldn't remember. He opened the door, his dog dashed at him, growling deep in its throat. But that is not the howl of excitement when it really wanted to go out - besides it is not time for a walk. It has hackled up, tail wasn't waggling, and it can barely sit straight. “What happened, Rocky? Rocky! ”At the same time, the basement door to the backyard thumped open. The dog jumped, then scurried out, stumbling as if its brain suffered a loss of coordination. Alex followed it, without bringing flashlight and camera. 

It's dark outside. Not just pitch dark, but a darkness that if you look into the sky, or into the air, trying to find a star, or the position of the woods, it is actively sucking out you eyeballs. The dog dived into the night, all sounds were gone. Alex gazed hard in its direction, and he shuddered.

Rocky was wailing. Poor dog, Alex has never heard the dog ever made that kind of gruesome, chilling to the bones howl. The dog was lying on its side, all limp and stiff. Alex walked ahead, barely adjusted to the darkness, then he saw the foams and saliva at the corner of Rocky's mouth. Its eyes were rolling. Seems like it was in extreme torture, or it was in shock and cardiac failure after seeing some horrifying things. The familiar shiver swept back, something closeby was staring, at him. If he take a picture right now, he could capture that...He knew well what that is. But he fixed his eyes at it, and couldn't make out a fucking line...Fucking can't see a thing!

The dog at his feet was screeching, convulsing, panting excessively. At this moment however, a strange feeling emerged from the recess of his mind. Be quiet, please! Rocky, I know you are in misery, I know you are trying to warn me of THAT thing, but please fucking SHUT UP!! I can't think of anything if you are screaming like this, you are just drawing it nearer! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED?! The panic distorted into seething rage, and Alex himself didn't seem to notice. He wished his dog, that stupid damn DAMN dog, why can't it just stop writhing? Why is it so hard to die? If he stand here one more second hearing it making this noise, he is going to break. It drives him crazy with the thought of stomping Rocky's head flat, crushing its skull and watching its brains overflow. But Alex had lost any other thoughts at this point.

Alex knelt down, slowly. He had nothing to worry about, nothing was in his mind. He hugged his dearest dog, faithful friend, his company throughout the entire college life. Then, he tightened his arms, constricting the dog's windpipe. His other hand gripped on its snout. For a short moment it appeared that the dog's hind legs have recovered to its old swiftness, it kicked and thrashed with such a strength that Alex could hardly hold it down with his clammy hands. With great labour, he managed to press Rocky's head against his chest. Leaning close to the dog's back, it felt warm and cozy, Alex felt his tears ran down into tufts of its shaggy fur. Don't struggle, it's ok. It's gonna be over. Soon, it'll be just me here carrying all the weight. The dying dog curled its lips, in a last attempt to bark or bite at its owner, it kicked and scratched and tried to get some air and failed, liquids drooled down from its mouth and nose. Why did all of this take so long? He was hyperventilating now, crying hysterically and the sound of blood throbbing in his eardrum became louder and louder and took over any other sound around him. His heart now began to palpitate, sending stomach acid back up his throat. Alex couldn't feel his fingers right now. He pictured his own face, which has became very obscure to him, in the darkness before him. The place where his eyes should be was now left with two empty, shiny holes. He is no longer himself. There is no need to fear.

A warm, humid breeze stirred his mind. Alex was digging a hole in the backyard, and stopped every now and then due to uncontrollable sobbing. Rigor mortis had set in Rocky's body. The cuff of his trousers was drenched with the morning dew. Not a single person was watching him. Maybe there isn't one after all, but the cramps from being observed remained in his bones. Maybe they were watching his friends as well. Oh, his friends. The hole was dug too shallow, in the end he couldn't even bury his dog properly. Alex felt like he's gonna collapse at any moment. He HAD to get some rest, now. He dropped the shovel. The sky began to turn whitish. It would took merely minutes for the morning sun to shine upon his yard again.

Alex went back to the bedroom, and changed the tape of his camera. Touching that camera made him feel sick, as though he has been repeating this for thousands of times. The camera was a symbol of what he used to love, it was a job which he could devote his life's passion and inspiration. Now that his memory was messed up that he could never piece them together, and as his sanity was crumbling as well, the camera was the only one there to pin everything in their place. Alex started shaking again, he could hear his heart pumping violently in his ribcage. Alex's head was exceedly clear right now. Send out a warning to his friends - “Hide, LOCK THE DOOR”, but there's nowhere they could hide.

Now, Alex stopped trembling. He had his address book open, and pressed enter the first number. He had to save himself, even if only him alone is getting out of it.

“Sorry 'bout that, the signal was really bad just now,” Brian lay on the couch, then he sit up again. He has this little behaviour of must-do-something-while-being-on-the-phone. That's fine, Tim said on the line, and he continued.

“I guess, I see what you mean now.” He thought to himself: These people are quite weird, they love to confess to him sometimes. Honestly, just look at Brian, how could you not wanting to tell him about your deepest darkest secret, knowing that he'll trust you without any reservation, and keep the secret for you, because he is that kind of a person? The problem with Alex and “Marble Hornets” that he directed, although Tim wouldn't mention, Sarah and Seth had complained to him about it already. He still didn't think there's any malevolence in Alex...Brian hung on the phone, while studying closely on that painting he put up above the coach. The painting depicted a scene of forest fire, the burning coniferous forest sends smoke and heat up into the air. He loved it at the first sight. Brian bought it recently from a local antique shop, but he couldn't remember which shop was it. He inspected at it for a while, then he lay down again. Up until right now, had he see something carved into the bottom of the frame. A phrase, in fact. The mark was pretty new, as though he cut it himself while on the phone.

“Well, perhaps we were both overthinking things. Alex could be doing it the famous director style, acting edgy and all when someone couldn't keep up his pace. Uh, his problem is the same with yours: You people didn't get enough sleep. And you two had collaborated on a few projects before, maybe that is why he never flipped at you, because you know his style very well...”Brian swiped his finger across that carving, feeling it, and read it out:

“To.the.ark.”

“OK, what? ”

Brian confused for a second, then left it behind his head, “It's fine.”

“Alright, keep an eye on Alex for me, will ya? Oh and Jay as well.”

They were both amused for a while by the mention of Jay. Jay roasted Alex's movie from his back - Like, if Jay didn't try with all his might to sabotage it, their friend would stick with that “vampire” plot. Yeah, Jay didn't speak highly of its quality. Alex on the other hand, loves when someone praises him. He longs for that day when people take Scorsese as his middle name. “He wrote really good scripts and characters! ”Tim shouted. “Hey, you are majoring in Photography,” Jay turned to Tim, “So you must know that feeling we photography students all had, without doubt, we wanted to see something of our own being produced. That's the sole reason we are all in it.” Brian smiled at them two. Unlike these people, he wanted to be in nursing school just because his parents were both doctors. Recently, he transferred into psychology. He said he wanted to learn more about mental health, in order to help his friend. He was not joking. 

By the time they just started filming the Marble Hornets. One day, the four met up in Jay's apartment to try his new Xbox 360 out. Alex and Tim found themselves a cozy place in the living room. But where's Brian? “He said he's going to buy us some drinks, I hope it's not soda.”

“Without driver's license, he can't get anything but soda,” Jay agreed, “Brian's a big big boy, they won't sell him any alcohol.”

And Brian indeed brought back a dozen coke. Alex sighed deeply, went out on his own. Tim on the other hand, was hunkering down besides Jay to see how he connected the console to his TV. The game they were playing, was called “Max Payne 2”. It was not the most popular game at that time, but definitely worth the money. Brian threw Tim a bag of snacks, and Jay sat down. The game entered into its introduction. 

Though they are to play it together, Tim just wanted to watch them quietly, and Brian said he doesn't like violent gun-shooting games. So the main controller is still Jay himself. However, Jay's gaming skill is...very doubtful. There are hundreds of ways to his character's demise even without the enemy's presence. Alex couldn't stand it anymore, he took over the gamepad, and he played even worse than Jay. Alex returned to the menu, and jumped: “WH...Why on earth did you set the difficulty to the hardest?! ”

“Trust me! ”Jay shouted loudly, “Only Dead on Arrival gives you the good ending! ”Brian had enough, and said: “Let me do it.”

They don't know exactly when, maybe after hours of wading into this game, they at one went quiet. The sunset is about to disappear, and after that, the living room would fall to utter dimness. The floor looked like a jungle with beer bottles, crushed cans and all the empty chip bags. But no one ever called it a day. They just stopped talking, and watched Brian smoothly cut into Bullet Time, changed his shotgun into sniper's rifle, and then changed it again. Flash and glows of the TV screen had become the only light in the dark room, and the sound of Officer Max taking his painkillers was the only sound they could hear...At last, the finale animation appeared on the screen - as Max kissed the supposed to be dead Mona, she opened her eyes. The two kept gazing at each other till the police came surrounded this place. And the cutscene turned into a black background. The Main Theme started playing. Jay turned on the light just at the right time. The four then looked at each other with the same expression: Their eyes were sore and bleary, as if they just had a long, unending dream, or it was the exhaustion of the brain after hours of staring at the screen. Brian held the controller up in the air, then fell full-length on his back like heros in some war movie. Alex closed his eyes, made a deep inhale, like he was going to make some remarkable punchlines. Tim wiggled his fingers to the sound of this background music - he could play it on guitar with some practice. For a long period of time, the four never spoke a word. Tim thought of saying some light-hearted stuff to loosen them up a bit, but he decided not to. 

It was already early morning when Tim hung up the phone. Just when he decided to give sleeping another chance, he was startled by another phone call. It's Alex.

What could brought Alex to call him at this time of the day? Nonetheless, guess he won't be able to sleep after all.

“Hey, Alex, are you...” The voice from the other end sounded unnatural, as though Alex was talking to him through pre-recorded voicemail, “The abandoned hospital I mentioned to you before, yeah, I remember. ‘Brian's old school’, I thought you've already given up on the film...the location, I mean. No, not at all, it's your choice to begin whenever you feel like it...You would like to take a look today? Alright, I don't have much to do anyways...right now? ...Well, it's fine too. Where should we meet? ”

Yet Alex seemed like he doesn't have any interest in this location scouting, or the entire thing, at all.

Tim sensed some change in the air when Alex started acting strangely. Though he couldn't tell the difference yet, the shadow that has completely gone from his life, again was lurking around. And it was not just in the back of his mind now, it has sprawled out, reaching the other two as well.

But who cares? Tim pondered. Brian always acts as the strong glue, bonding him with the other friends, but it shouldn't be that way. He should try to restore the problem by himself. Or better, he should do his best to provide help, even if it meant to stop hiding those secrets any longer - Because it is what Brian wished him to do. Because Alex was also his friend - 

Alex cut off the line. Now that Tim has decided, there isn't a need to hurry at all. He stood up, and slotted the soundtrack of “Max Payne 2” into a CD player. At that time, the four of them had just finished the game, and went out for some refreshments. As they were sitting in the fast-food store, Tim cleared his throat, and imitated Max Payne's monologue with his deepest voice: 

_The fatal choice already made, and it would get worse before the end. The past...it could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free._

And Alex laughed heartily at his performance. He even asked Tim to narrate his movie just like this. Voice-over films have their originality nowadays! Jay and Brian chimed with him. Then, they actually started discussing how they should shape Tim's character better...

Tim lay back on the bed, the refrain part “Max Payne 2”'s ending song was playing relentlessly: And we keep driving into the night, it's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye.

And we keep driving into the night.

**Fin?**

**Author's Note:**

> Phew what a long story I wrote! If you have reached here, I will personally come to your house and hold your hands! 
> 
> If you are willing to tho, please read it a second time and this time listen to "Devotion - No Party for Cao Dong", or "Please and Thank you - Wildcat! Wildcat! ". Thinking of the plot that went dark too quickly and the four friends will never be back together after Entry 56, the feelings will be completely different.
> 
> The lyrics of "Late Goodbye", the song is so fitting omg. 
> 
> In our headlights, staring, bleak  
> Beer cans, deer's eyes  
> On the asphalt, underneath  
> Our crushed plans and my lies  
> Lonely street signs, power lines  
> They keep on flashing, flashing by
> 
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye  
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye
> 
> Your breath hot upon my cheek  
> And we crossed that line  
> You made me strong when I was feeling weak  
> And we crossed, that one time  
> Screaming stop signs, staring wild eyes  
> Keep on flashing, flashing by
> 
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye  
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye
> 
> The devil grins from ear to ear when he sees the hand he's dealt us  
> Points at your flaming hair, and then we're playing hide and seek  
> I can't breathe easy here, unless our trail's gone cold behind us  
> 'Til in the john mirror, you stare at yourself grown old and weak
> 
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye  
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye  
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye  
> And we keep driving into the night  
> It's a late goodbye  
> And we keep driving into the night...


End file.
